A Response to Scheff: Don't Write-Off the Courts

Source: (1998) Revista Juridica Universidad de Puerto Rico. 67: 653.

As characterized by David Rottman and Pamela Casey, Thomas Scheff has proposed a merger of therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative justice, with the community conference as a promising mechanism for such a merger. Rottman and Casey express their concern that other potential mechanisms may be overlooked if the court system is viewed only as a âfact-finding and punishing machine.â? They argue that the emerging court component of the community justice movement is good and has many elements consistent with therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative justice.